Budget 2024 live: Reeves sets out plan for £40bn in tax hikes and more borrowing in historic speech – UK Times

Sir Ed Davey, who cares for his disabled son and previously cared for his mother, has been a staunch campaigner for carers and their financial needs.

The increase of extra income to keep the carers’ allowance to £10,000 will help thousands of people across the country.

More important will be the efforts to end the cliff edge where they lose the allowance and the issue of overpayments.

The Lib Dem leader will see this as an early personal victory as he leads his newly enlarged 72-MP bloc.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons that the government would stick to the Bank of England’s two per cent inflation target.

The UK inflation rate was 1.7 percent in September 2024, down from 2.2 percent in the previous month.

She said: “Today, I can confirm that we will maintain the MPC’s (Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee) target of 2 per cent inflation, as measured by the 12-month increase in the Consumer Prices Index.”

Rachel Reeves has announced the increase of minimum wage by 6.7 percent.

The chancellor told the house that the national living wage will see it rise £12.21 an hour next year as she delivers Labour’s first budget in 14 years.

It will also be raised for 18-20-year-olds by 16.3 per cent – bringing it up to £10 an hour for this group.

Ahead of the budget, John Foster, chief policy and campaigns officer at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the national living wage was a “valuable tool” for protecting the incomes of the poorest in society “but with productivity stagnant, businesses will have to accommodate this increase against a challenging economic backdrop and growing pressure on their bottom line”.

Reeves has announced a fresh crackdown on welfare fruad.

She told the house that the new strategy will raise £3.4bn a year by the end of the fiscal forecast and will including direct access to bank accounts to recover debt.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons “this Budget raises taxes by £40 billion”.

She said: “The leadership campaign for the party opposite has now been going on for over three months, but in all that time not one, single apology for what they did to our country – because the Conservative Party has not changed.

“But this is a changed Labour Party and we will restore stability to our country again.

“The scale and seriousness of the situation that we have inherited cannot be underestimated.

“Together, the black hole in our public finances this year, which recurs every year, the compensation payments which they did not fund, and their failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services means this Budget raises taxes by £40 billion.

“Any chancellor standing here today would face this reality, and any responsible chancellor would take action. That is why today, I am restoring stability to our public finances and rebuilding our public services.”

Rachel Reeves has spoken about what she calls the seven key pillars as Labour’s growth strategy:

– Restore economic stability.

– Increasing investment and building infrastructure – transforming planning rules.

– Working with devolved governments.

– Creation of Skills England, to tackle economic inactivity.

– Expanding opportunities for small and medium sized businesses.

– Protecting record funding for research and development.

– Maximise growth benefits of clean energy mission.

The chancellor has confirmed that her first Budget will raise taxes by an eye-watering £40bn.

But she insisted that the blame lay with the Conservatives. She accused them of blowing a hole in the public finances and failing to fund compensations schemes, such as the one for those affected by the infected blood scandal.

On her tax rises she told MPs: “Any chancellor standing here today would have to face this reality”.

The Labour Party will rebuild Britain, chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.

She told the Commons: “This is not the first time that it has fallen to the Labour Party to rebuild Britain.

“In 1945, it was the Labour party that rebuilt our country out of the rubble of the Second World War. In 1964, it was the Labour Party that rebuilt Britain with the white heat of technology. And in 1997, it was the Labour Party that rebuilt our schools and our hospitals.

“Today, it falls to this Labour Party, this Labour Government to rebuild Britain once again.”

The Independent’s Archie Mitchell reports:

Rachel Reeves is expected to speak for around an hour, well short of the longest Budget speech in history.

The chancellor who gave the longest continuous Budget speech was William Gladstone on April 18, 1853. The speech lasted four hours and 45 minutes.

Benjamin Disraeli gave a longer Budget speech in 1852, lasting five hours, but took a break part way through.

And, as well as the longest speech, Mr Gladstone holds the record for having delivered the most, with twelve under his belt.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves opened her Budget speech by stating that her “belief in Britain burns brighter than ever”.

She told the Commons: “On July the 4th, the country voted for change. This government was given a mandate: to restore stability to our country and to begin a decade of national renewal. To fix the foundations and deliver change through responsible leadership in the national interest. That is our task and I know we can achieve it.

“My belief in Britain burns brighter than ever and the prize on offer is immense. As the prime minister said on Monday, change must be felt: more pounds in people’s pockets, an NHS that is there when you need it, an economy that is growing, creating wealth and opportunity for all because that is the only way to improve living standards.

“And the only way to drive economic growth is to invest, invest, invest.

“There are no shortcuts and to deliver that investment we must restore economic stability and turn the page on the last 14 years.”